Directors Urge Judge to Rule for Salmon Plan

by Umatilla Electric Board of Directors
East Oregonian, May 11, 2011

Umatilla Electric Cooperative's Board of Directors would like to add our voice to those urging U.S District Judge James Redden to rule in favor of the latest salmon plan to restore Northwest salmon runs. The plan before Judge Redden represents a successful collaboration among conflicting interests to develop a scientifically sound and comprehensive plan. Tribes, states and communities around the Northwest are working hard and working together to help restore and protect wild salmon. This plan is off to a promising start, with strong and record-breaking returns of adult salmon in recent years. Last year, Snake River fall run Chinook spawned in the wild in larger numbers than any other year since records have been kept.

As federal agencies implemented elements of the plan, hundreds of improvements and mitigation measures have been taken involving dam operations, habitat restoration and salmon predation controls. The state and tribal "Accords" have locked in funding to repair damage to habitat where salmon rear and spawn. Some $100 million will be spent each year, a billion in all, in tributaries of the Columbia and Snake rivers and in the estuary.